Look out Susanville

quail hound

quail hound

Moderator
We will be heading out early tomorrow morning pointing the truck north for chukar country. Just my dad, my brother, me and our 4 unruly springers heading to uncharted (for us) land. It's going to be a cold one up there but with any luck we will get into some birds.:cheers: I will try to post some pics as we go on our travels.:thumbsup:
 
Good luck! I know it's going to be fun hunting with those 4 Springers. :thumbsup:
 
QH, very nice, keep us posted how it goes...wish I could go but not for a couple weeks...PM me for some areas for me to go to, being it will be my first time as well.

Hope you get into alot of birds....... have fun!!!
 
What a beautiful drive. We were greeted with our first snow in Lassen national Forrest.

20121226_133210.jpg


20121226_123223.jpg


Stop at the Susanville BLM field office to get some maps and what was there in the parking lot to greet us but a healthy covey of quail. They're kind of hard to see but they are in the middle under the bush. There was about 30 in the brush.

20121226_151539.jpg


And the puppies got there first ever taste of snow.

20121226_153330.jpg


The hunting starts tomorrow a.m.:cheers:
 
Robert,
I forgot to mention to you to keep your beer in the ice chest to keep it warm enough to drink. My partner and I had whiskey freeze in our vehicle at night out in that area. That takes -13 deg to accomplish.
 
Day two started with us climbing the hills in search of chukar. We didn't find any or even seen any sign in the hills, to much snow? Maybe plus there was hardly any cheat left up high. So we found a nice creek and tried to find some quail. We moved 5 birds? They should be running in big coveys this time of year. Oh well. My brother bagged one. Came back to camp as the sun was setting and there must be 2-300 quail running around.:eek: Tomorrow's a new day, hopefully we get into them.:thumbsup:

20121227_164321-1.jpg


20121227_164332.jpg


20121227_101542-1.jpg


20121227_165517.jpg
 
QH, Looks like you could have used a butterfly net to bag those quail..lol...

Robert, nice pics, looks like a bunch of hiking, you must be in chukar country!!

Hope you guys limit out tomorrow, stay safe, keep pics rolling,

scott
 
Scott

We can't even let the dogs off their leads in camp because there's to many deer and quail everywhere.:eek::(
 
Wow, thats awesome theres that many quail out there, sounds like you might limit on quail, but I hope you fine chuk's tomorrow...
 
All those in the pic are valleys. At the base of the sierras there should be some mtns. This valley up here looks really birdy, I bet there are some pheasants up here around the farm land. Tons of good cover. If we can get on some private bottom lands we should get into a ton of quail.
 
Great Posts, please keep us up to date and keep the pictures coming!:thumbsup::10sign:
 
If you hunt quail close to farm land don't shoot many until you smell them. I've shot quail in similar conditions below Topaz and it's tough on them with the cold and the snow. They will be ganged up like that and often be living near farm activity like feed lots and corrals. As a result they often feed in the animal areas and eat what they can find in the manure which makes them taste the way their food smells. They can be inedible as a result but you can smell it on them when you clean them especially their crops.
In rare years they have good pheasant hatches at the two Honey Lake wildlife areas but other than that there's nothing to speak of on public land. Winters are too tough and no crop lands.
I thought you were going to camp out in the hills but chain link fence means creature comforts.
 
calamari said:
I thought you were going to camp out in the hills but chain link fence means creature comforts.
Click to expand...

That was my plan but my dad went yuppy on us and wanted to stay in town at an RV place with full hook ups.:rolleyes:
 
quail hound said:
That was my plan but my dad went yuppy on us and wanted to stay in town at an RV place with full hook ups.:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Having spent quite a few nights in vehicles with frozen liquor near the bed I find no crime in being warm at night. I thought your dad was very intelligent when we met.
 
Yeah you're probably right. I think my dad maybe rethinking my sanity right now after our 10 mile hike in 12 degree weather for one covey of quail today lol.
 
Now you know why we had liquor in the vehicle. You also can see how those birds can be shot off quickly and the few that survive can die in the winters. Chukar populations always fluctuate a lot from year to year and little mountain range to range. Even if you find some on this trip you may be eating next years seed corn.
 
Well our adventure in Susanville has drawn to an end. Only one quail is making the trip home with us but we had a great time exploring a new land. We learned that 3 days is not enough to explore an area with so much public land and that it is difficult to get on private ground around here now days. This area is rich with wildlife though and we will be back.

We saw about 6 roosters and 3 hens cross the road in front of us and take shelter under a tree on some private land

20121229_110510-1.jpg


And one bald eagle on a power pole.

20121229_091655-1.jpg


Found a small covey of quail down near the reservoir.

20121228_124918.jpg


And we only hiked 4 miles to find them.:cheers:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top